Camilo De Guzmán is General Counsel and VP of Regulatory & Corporate Affairs at Natuera, which is Cronos Group’s joint venture in Latin America. I’ve watched Natuera develop over the last five years, and as is the case with other leading Colombian producers, they are able to offer reliable, high-quality, and fully traceable contract growing services and manufacturing solutions to the hemp and cannabis industry worldwide.
As legalization arrives in each country globally, the door is opened to more affordable and higher-quality imports. Canada has been an exception to this, and the adoption of protectionist policies to protect Canadian producers that cannot compete with the global markets is only resulting in Canada’s first-mover advantage being lost. When the US legalizes federally, look to foreign exports upending the economics for most producers. The foreign-grown products are of higher quality and purity than domestic products. Testing internationally is serious and thorough, and despite claims otherwise, this is not the case in the US.
Companies in Colombia, and other favourable production regions being developed, such as Peru, and Panama, all use state-of-the-art GMP and EUGMP facilities to produce cannabis in conditions that make production possible at less than $0.10 per gram, compared with $.80-$1.50 gram for lesser quality domestic product.
If you are building a cannabis business today and do not consider how imports will affect your business in the future, you are setting yourself up to fail.